GooglePlus phishing scam revealed
By Ashley Curtis
05/07/2011
Internet users are being urged to watch out for suspicious e-mails purporting to be an invite from Google's new social network, Google+.
A group of hackers called Partnerka are sending out fake invites via e-mail asking users to 'join' the service but, in reality, users are directed to a pharmaceutical site.
The Inquirer reports the invites look incredibly authentic and users are being asked to be on guard. It is hoped that those with appropriate systems management software will be able to block the e-mails as spam or suspicious, thereby eradicating the scam at the source.
Internet security firm Sophos identified the scam last Friday, but labelled it as "amateur".
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, elaborated on the scam to The Telegraph: "This group are trying to lure users to a pharmaceutical website by using Google+ invites. The scam is still ongoing and spreading around the world.
"The scam is quite amateur at this stage as the link doesn't even take the user to a Google-looking site from which the hacker could then grab users' personal details. It just takes you directly to the wrong site and most people won't fall for it - but they should still be careful and check the identity of the person supposedly sending them the invite to join Google+," he added.
